


Nwalin Week 2016!

by werpiper



Series: in the icing: Layers side stories [8]
Category: The Hobbit - All Media Types
Genre: (for various chapters), First Day of School, Flirting, Genderfuck, Nonbinary Dwarves, Other, Underwear Theft
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-05-26
Updated: 2016-07-13
Packaged: 2018-07-10 10:22:58
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 3,051
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6980377
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/werpiper/pseuds/werpiper
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>THERE ARE NO DEADLINES THERE IS ONLY LOVE <3</p><p>Nwalin Week 2016 prompt fills!  Mostly Nori-POV bits from my "Layers" novel-length quest retelling and thereabouts.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. "flirting" or "fighting"

**Author's Note:**

> "flirting" or "fighting" today.

Nori never could see the point of flirting. As gambling went, the stakes were high and the payoff uncertain. Dori was a past master, of course, with his beautiful smile and comforting manners -- he'd say a few sweet words to a baker and there'd be an extra bun in the basket, or lower his lashes and smile at a guardsman and they'd agree that little Nori was best off being disciplined within the family. And Dori would sigh and ask why Nori couldn't learn to be just a *little* nicer, to smile sometimes and try to get along. But she just couldn't. False smiles stuck in her mouth like fur, made her want to spit. And a bared inch of blade sent a clearer message than any pleasantry or show of teeth, and Nori much liked being understood.

Which was why Dwalin was so irritating, well beyond incomprehensible. He didn't just make faces or say things; he strutted out into a private spot in the woods, and when Nori showed herself he stripped down naked and brought himself off. That was well beyond anything Dori would do (Nori believed, or at least devoutly hoped), but the message seemed to be what Dori had always said proper flirting ought to convey: _So good of you to look at me._

Nori still didn't like it. Not that Dwalin wasn't good to look at; he was, but if anything that made matters worse. When Dwalin was dozing after, the creek-water chuckling around his sprawled-out form, Nori crept from her viewing-spot on a rock down to the path. There were Dwalin's weapons and his clothes, as casually left as if he were locked in his own private rooms. Nori picked up his smallclothes -- rudest thing she could think of -- and stole away, back towards camp.

"What have you got there?" asked Dori, right on top of her like he always was.

"Mending for another of our party," said Nori virtuously, and sought out her soap and her needle and thread. Dori smiled at her -- not meaningless like flirting, actually pleased for once -- and indicated the water heating over the campfire. So Nori did as she had said, half fuming, half imagining her handiwork snuggled up by Dwalin's muscular arse. Stealing wasn't flirting, she told herself. It was fighting, showing her strength, and if she returned the goods better than she'd taken them, a show of great magnanimity. Certainly Dwalin was bigger, stronger, and better-armed than Nori would ever be, but she would be his match and no mistake.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> lake-town. set among events in layers chapter 65.

She tried to make it perfect. Pillows and featherbed and silk blankets -- everything she had added to her dreams, since those warm memories of straw ticking and a down comforter. She set it all up and locked it tight, and ran downstairs to bathe first, with her chosen lover.

He was, typically, slow as a plodding ox about it. Nori would have been happy if they'd scooped up an ewer of hot water and cleaned off in the bedroom, but no. Dwalin immersed himself along with half the Company, the Man-sized tub sloshing over with his mass. He held Nori on his lap, her head beneath the curved mass of his collarbone, and helped hold Kili still while Fili untangled his brother's hair. Then there were older brothers fussing over them both with scented hair-oils, and Nori might have told Dori to sod off if Dwalin had not been so clearly basking in Balin's attentions (or if, if she admitted it, Dwalin didn't smell wickedly wonderful spiced up with rosewood and cinnamon). Eventually the party dispersed, and they were alone except for the brothers Ur and the remaining problems of Bombur's abused beard.

Nori fidgeted, pulling at Dwalin's pelt, and he kissed her -- still slow, so slow. His eyes were closed, and he might almost have been asleep. She tugged his beard, scratched with her nails, and Dwalin chuckled. Eventually he murmured, "Our room, then?"

Nori's voice was savage. "Yes, and you're going to fuck me." In case he hadn't been waiting, turning the phrase over and over in his mind, like she had been since one fine day so long ago. In sunlight, in an elves' fountain instead of a Men's bath -- but Dwalin was the same, heavy arms around her, voice a rumble that Nori felt in her belly as much as heard with her ears. He was speaking again, and it shook her to the core, so that it took her a moment to figure out the words -- 

"I certainly am. And as I said, I'm going to take all day about it, which means we start in the morning." He was moving as well, and she was dizzy with his strength and light-headed from the steam, and Dwalin yawned halfway through the sentence, She squirmed, embarrassed and unbalanced, but he held on and carried her out of the tub. He supported her on his hip as if she were a tiny child, and wrapped her in a towel. "I promise," he continued, "to make it worth the wait."

Nori hid her face and huffed. But Dwalin did not put her down, and she tugged him this way and that as he strode through the Men's guest-house, until they were at the door she had prepared. She took out her lock-picks and opened it, glad for the chance to stand on her own feet, her fingers precise even while her head still spun. When she'd opened the door he carried her inside. The oil-lamp she'd left was burning low, and Dwalin put her carefully on the huge, high bed. He climbed up after, looming like the Lonely Mountain and yawning again. But his eyes were blue and keen as gas-flames, and he caught her shoulders and her gaze. "What is it, love?"

"All this --" Nori gestured vaguely about, "I tried to make it perfect, I wanted it to be just --" 

"It is perfect," said Dwalin, and kissed her again. It was long and languid and heavy, and his voice slurred when they spoke again some time later. "You're perfect. Want to get off before sleeping?" -- which was not right at all.

Nori was on fire and on edge. She'd been waiting what seemed like forever -- arguing with herself over whether or not she loved Dwalin (he was all wrong, to start with), then through terror and Dwalin's kindness at Beorn's (and he was kind and safe, even if he was a heavy hairy awful dwarf, no less ugly than herself), then the misery of Mirkwood and the terrible captivity of the Elven-king -- and forever was too long to wait, whether it was love or lust or nothing special really. Almost drowning in the river, waiting through politics with Lake-town's leaders -- it was all too much and too long -- and it was finally over, and Nori and Dwalin were alone in a bed in a quiet room, and apparently the stupid lump was going to go to sleep. She couldn't stand it.

But she couldn't be angry either, not with Dwalin's blue gaze on her, sleepy and gentle and keen all at once. Or his skin on her, his pelt as soft and thick as a cat's fur, and heat and strength of his every movement beneath. She _wanted_ to fuck, wanted it desperately, nothing more -- but it wasn't fair to demand; it was never all right to press for intimacies. Nori took a deep breath, trying to steady herself, and a more familiar feeling overtook her: the desire to escape. "I'll," she started, had to swallow hard, "I'll go out for a bit, if you don't mind." Dwalin's face went suddenly stark with loss, and Nori put her arms around him. "It's all right, I've thought of some things." She pulled away, slipping off the bed, away from the soft silk and Dwalin's big hands. "I'll be back soon." He said nothing as she got dressed, only watched her narrow-eyed. But if he wouldn't fuck, she couldn't sit still, and there was no point in pretending she could relax. When she was clothed and armed, she met Dwalin's gaze again, saw him naked and watchful. She reached up to kiss his hand and said, "Go to sleep, you lazy old thing. I'm just going to indulge myself a bit, and I'll be back before you notice."

Dwalin started to say something about slick -- his brother had earlier given Nori a nudge towards the house's store of blade-oil, with a whisper about Dwalin favoring its scent. She blushed again as she had then, demurring somehow, and went to the window. Dwalin came after her, after all, but it was too late. She was out over the Long Lake's dark waters, her fingers and toes secure against the house's rough-hewn walls. Dwalin stood at the sill, blocking the light, and Nori slipped away into the cool night wind.

It soothed her, once she was out of sight. The moon sailed above, her old familiar friend, and the night was bright with it. She traveled easily through Lake-town, the buildings conveniently close as she passed from wall to roof to walkway over the water. The night-sounds of Men were soothing, a baby nursing as its mother crooned, an old couple snoring in sympathy, a rowboat creaking against a dock. Nori breathed deeply. She was free, finally free after all, and alone at last.

When she saw what she wanted, she knew it immediately, though she could not have said how she searched. A launderers' lines, heavily laden, waiting to be taken in before the morning dew. Nori drew in one breath of laughter, then climbed down to lose herself in the soft, clean fabrics. They swept over her hands and face, smelling of soap and lavender and comfort. There was silk that felt like richness, and linen that felt like care. She found a shirt for herself -- a Man's shirt that would fit her like a dress, long enough to enfold her whole body in memories of innocence and childhood and love. And a nightgown, embroidered around the neck and even larger; it was something Eada might have worn, if they'd lived together forever and grown fat and wealthy as they'd planned. Big enough for Dwalin, Nori reckoned, and laughed under her breath again. She took them both, bundling them into her belt to have her hands free.

Then her breath caught in her throat and she climbed back down to the walkway, inches from the dark and murmuring water. Silently she returned to the Men's guest-house, and silently moved through the halls. With a thief's gifts and a misfit's desires, with the courage of someone who'd lost love and not died, she opened her lover's door and went inside.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> more underwear theft! apparently this is a theme around here ;)
> 
> and an illustration (more dwalin pov, i am also gonna link to it over in layers proper):  
> 


	3. silver and gold

When Ori turned thirteen and was of age to start school, the family had settled in rooms -- two of them, one with a bed and the other a hearth -- inside the walls of Ered Luin. They were almost entirely above-ground; the hearth-room had a door that ended properly beneath the stone. But Ori was a citizen in Thorin's Halls, and a letter came from the royal family: every young dwarf would receive a proper education.

There were not many children in the settlement. There had been no new marriages since the massacre at Erebor; no kindlings ( _except mine_ , thought Nori rebelliously and in silence) and no births, and everyone capable of work was more or less expected to be effectively an adult. So Ori's formal enrollment became a sort of holiday for everyone. On the appointed morning, Nori and Dori stepped through their hearth-room door with their little one between them. The corridor was hung with golden tinsel and lit with beautiful lamps, and people lined up on the sides to greet the new student in their best Khuzdul: _May he learn to create as Mahal learned to create him!_

Ori's right hand clung to Nori's left, and Nori's right arm was soon full of the community's gifts: an inkstone, a rucksack (very handy as the collection increased), chalks in every color, tea-bags, a pen-knife, a protractor. At the end of the appointed path was the classroom, and Ori's first teacher -- the king's cousin Balin, in a red velvet robe -- knelt in the doorway with his arms open wide. Dori and Nori let go, and after one glance back at them, Ori ran to meet him. Cheers erupted as Balin swung the child high. The royal family surrounded them: the king with his crown, the prince in his blacksmith's apron. The princess Dis leaned back against a golden-haired dwarf; their arms were entwined and they were laughing and crying together. The guardsman Dwalin towered above everyone. The grim, scarred face Nori knew too well was as bright and cheerful as a flame, and Dwalin pushed a little wooden sword into Ori's new rucksack in Nori's hand, and his deep voice roared, "To new learning!"

Nori flinched but managed not to flee. As she carried the gifts into the classroom, she whispered in Ori's ear, "And may we always be more clever than those who are set against us." Ori turned in Balin's arms and nodded, and Nori believed that, in fact, they always would be.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ok, this one is obscure. but i like to think that it was this little ceremony, this return to a good life for the dwarves, that made ered luin feel safe enough for dis and farli to begin to start their family -- that is kili and fili, my personal fandom's "silver and gold" <3


	4. on the road

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> corresponding to layers ch 2 and 3.

The Company rode singing. Their voices were strong and harmonious, and the ponies' feet made a rolling percussion on the road. The blue and seven stars of Durin flew on a banner overhead, and Nori was terrified.

She knew she was being irrational. This was not their small family escaping the ruins of the Lonely Mountain, nor was she sneaking alone through Men's lands to poach and steal. This was a legitimate undertaking. A King and his heirs rode at their head, and the blue-and-stars of Durin flew on their banner. They were well-funded -- Nori had some taste of that, buying the ponies and equipping them, in correspondence with their quartermaster Bombur (and if there were half again as many ponies as she'd paid for, well, the stable-owner should have marked the stalls more clearly). They were also well-armed. Dwalin rode among them, with his axes on his back and spiky knuckledusters on his tremendous fists. He'd chased after Nori hundreds of times over scores of years in Ered Luin, but she had no reason to flee him now. She had been recruited, bizarrely enough, for the same light-fingered skills for which she had been pursued. Dwalin himself had sent the letter. But if only out of habit, she was always aware of him among the Company; where he rode or walked or slept at night. And perhaps it was his habit too, but more often than chance could explain, his sharp blue eyes met her gaze.

The nights were nervewracking, especially when Dwalin had the watch. He was military about it, marking a perimeter and walking it, not restless but quiet and assured, an axe on his back and another light in his hands. She could not sleep through that, nor even squeeze her eyes closed; she huddled behind Dori and buried her face in his back after Dwalin passed. When Nori had the watch, she tried to mimic Dwalin's habits, though she was far more nervous of the group of Dwarves she guarded than any theoretical threats of the road. No animal, and she imagined no Big People either, would disturb a baker's dozen of Mahal's best asleep or awake. But Dwalin had arrested her more than once, and his brother Balin (a deceptively gentle-looking sort, white beard and a sweet smile, though she'd seen him take Dwalin down with one stroke of his mace) had sat in judgment over her on two horribly memorable occasions. The King they rode with was the one whose laws she had defied. 

Nori tried to feel secure in her family -- they'd made this journey once before, much poorer and more vulnerable, and survived. Dori was still the strongest person Nori had ever met, and Ori the cleverest. But Dwalin's eyes seemed to pierce her, seeking out Nori's secrets and evaluating her defenses. After the first few days, he'd even smile at her, and her heart would skip a beat. She considered confiding in Dori, but that very evening Dwalin brought over downed fir-boughs to soften the bedrolls of the "brothers Ri", and Dori thanked Master Dwalin with his usual mannerly elegance. Then he turned and favored Balin with the dazzling best Dori smile, and that closed Nori's mouth. All Dori would do would tell her to get along as proper dwarves among dwarves ought. And Ori, who had studied with Balin and thought he hung the moon, would only be worse. Nori sighed, pinched the bridge of her nose, and said nothing to anyone.

The next morning she had Shadowwalker saddled when Dwalin appeared beside her, seeming somehow more massive than the horse. But his axes were on his own saddle, and he only smiled at her courteously and said, "Like a leg up, now?" Without waiting for an answer, he set his hands by the stirrup and waited.

Nori was short and Shadowwalker (by their standards) tall, but the offer was ridiculous, as if she hadn't learned to scramble for her life before she was halfway grown. Dwalin, though, seemed anything but ridiculous -- he was solid as a mountain and unmoving, face grave as he waited for her answer. Nori couldn't speak. Flustered, she set her boot in his hand, and was lifted as though she were weightless. She mounted by reflex. Then Fili called for help, and Dwalin touched his brow to Nori before he turned away.

Shadowwalker shied at something, or nothing, and Nori let him -- better her pony than herself. She made her breath come steadily, and sent her brothers a thin smile. The journey would be long. There would be no safety on it, no more than before the quest began or where it ended. She ignored Dwalin all morning and felt virtuous about it. But when they stopped for rest and lunch at a roadside clearing with a hitching-post and a well, Nori looked over the ponies, and there was Dwalin on the white-maned mare. His eyes were wickedly bright as he smiled back.


	5. injury and comfort

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> nori's pov on the first sentence of chapter 106.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WELL THIS GOT LONG.
> 
> catharsis after the battle. and apparently i wanted to write EVERYBODY more or less. smut in the second section.

this became another fic entirely -- go look for "mined and carved in erebor"!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the medicine hereis loosely inspired by mithoefer et. al. (2010); the kinky sex is entirely my own addition.
> 
> i headcanon ace!bofur but he's a bit of a tease XD


End file.
